


Deep Blue and Dancing in the Snow

by EvilSlicey



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, Jewelry, Memories, Mutual Pining, Oblivious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 05:47:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17037836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvilSlicey/pseuds/EvilSlicey
Summary: A bit of fluff about how Iris and Caitlin got together.





	Deep Blue and Dancing in the Snow

**Author's Note:**

> I blame jewelry commercials.

Caitlin looked around at the happily decorated bar and sighed before turning back to her drink. She frowned seeing it was nothing but ice and the dregs of the blue cocktail cherry the bartender had used as a garnish. She fished out the cherry and began waving down the bartender who seemed to in the middle of mixing about 20 drinks for a group of giggling girls at the other end of the bar who made her want to give up on the bar and leave.

But if she left, she would just wind up drinking alone in her house. At a bar it at least seemed socially acceptable to drink alone. At least if her drink was brightly colored and came with a cherry. Even if she had to deal with cringe worthy love songs and too early Christmas music to enjoy it.

Caitlin was drumming her fingers on bar top, briefly wondering if she should order some actual food when the bartender finally got back to her or if it was a straight drinks and cab ride home kind of night when a dark figure came into her peripheral vision and snapped her attention back to her surroundings. She glanced over and did a double take seeing Iris West sitting there in a wine-red dress with matching heels as she slipped off her coat and shot Caitlin a happy smile.

“Hey Caitlin, I was hoping I’d catch you still here.” Iris leaned against Caitlin and knocked her shoulder against hers before moving to lean against the bar and picking up the now empty glass. “I see you started without me.”

“Did I know you were coming?” Caitlin asked a little dumbfounded with a nervous lick of her lips to make sure there was no more sickly-sweet cherry juice in place. She couldn’t help but let her eyes roam up and down the embodiment of sweet and sexy now sitting next to her. Caitlin always felt slightly lacking in the beauty department next to Iris and tugged on her blue pencil skirt in an attempt to make herself look a bit more presentable.

“Unlikely. I heard you inviting Barry and Cisco out and knew they had their silly Star Wars night planned tonight. Figured you didn’t want to drink alone.” Iris smiled with a twinkle in her eyes.

“Trek.” Caitlin corrected automatically.

“Sorry?”

“The boys are uh… watching Star Trek nor Star Wars.” Caitlin blushed and brought her hands to her lap to wring her fingers in privacy.

“Is there a difference?” Iris asked leaning back but knocking her knee against Caitlin’s. Caitlin really wished she had had time to order a new drink because her throat was feeling drier than sand all of the sudden.

“One has sword fights the other one has laser battles?” Caitlin replied tentatively feeling her face redden with the blush she had been able to fight until then.

“I’ll keep that in mind. So, what are you drinking? Next rounds on me?” Iris asked as the bartender finally reappeared like a ninja from the house of perpetual torture.

“Oh, um a Deep Blue.” Caitlin pointed at her glass like it was going to confirm her order before the bartender whisked it away.

“Sounds good to me, two Deep Blues please. Oh, and an order of fries please.” Iris shot the bartender a dazzling smile that made Caitlin’s chest ache with a feeling that she quickly tamped down like she always did. That was a feeling she wasn’t allowed to feel anymore. Caitlin let her eyes find a spot over the bar to stare at while she took a few measured breaths while counting to 10.

Iris touched her hand before she made it to 6 and snapped her out of it so hard Caitlin briefly worried that she would fall off the stool. If Iris noticed she didn’t say anything and just gestured to the group of girls on the other end of the bar that Caitlin had been secretly hating for distracting the bartender from her earlier.

“God, do you remember when you were like them?” Iris asked with a whimsical melancholy to her voice.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been like them.” Caitlin answered honestly, focused more on the hand still on top of hers. Should she move her hand? Was that rude? Will Iris move it when she was ready? Did she want it to move? This was the first time all week she hadn’t felt like slinking into a corner to cry and it was nice.

“I can’t believe that. Barry told me about the karaoke night.” Iris wiggled her eye brow to accent her point.

Caitlin blushed again and shrugged.

“I’m not saying I never got drunk before, I just never did that.” Caitlin gestured absently towards the group with the hand Iris had been holding breaking the touch that had been so welcome.

“Really? You and your college friends to refined to neon colored shots a week or two before finals?”

“I didn’t really have any friends in college.” Caitlin tried to past on a cheery care free smile and was happy when a blue drink with a bit fizz finally showed up in front of her. Before she should grab the drink to hide behind it, Iris took her hand again.

“That is so hard to imagine. A caring intelligent woman like you? You would think everyone would clamor to be friends with you.”

“I guess it helps that I was in undergrad when most of my peers where just starting high school and was a PhD candidate by the time anyone my age was attending school.” Caitlin finally escaped into her drink taking a large shallow without even letting herself taste it.

“You never hung out with anyone in school?” Iris seemed disappointed and took a sip from her drink only to look surprised and affronted at the drink. “God what’s in this! It tastes like fizz and fire.”

“Vodka, Blue Curacao, champagne and a blue cherry.” Caitlin responded before taking another sip enjoying light citrusy taste of the drink. “And no, I’ve been told I am very hard to approach let alone relate to.”

“Who ever told you that was an ass. You’re just a like a river in the winter. A little hard on the outside but wild and alive underneath the ice. And always beautiful.”

The person who had told her that had been her only college girlfriend and seeing as that relationship had ended with her finding her in bed with another girl, her bed for that matter, Caitlin had to agree on the ass comment.

“What about you? Don’t you have some friends you couldn’t be hanging out with instead.” Caitlin worried momentarily that Iris was going to ditch her after one drink and leave he alone again. It would only be worse if she was left to drink alone.

“Nah growing up I basically only had Barry, because everyone else mocked him and I couldn’t let people hurt my friend like that let alone hang out with people that did that. Then when all my other friends were going to college, I went to Europe instead, then worked for a while trying to get up the initiative to apply for the police academy. Once dad fully squashed that dream then I enrolled in college. Being a few years older than all your classmates is just as hard as being younger I bet.”

“At least you always had Barry.” Caitlin sighed and was surprised to see a plate of greasy looking fries and a bottle of ketchup show up in front of them.

“Trust me, I love Barry with all my heart, but he isn’t always the easiest friend. Nor does he get stuff like not having people around him close to his age.”       Iris took one of the fries and shoved the whole thing in her mouth without a second thought. She choked and fanned her mouth for a second as she fumbled for her drink which she downed in one gulp.

“Hot?” Caitlin laughed as she fetched a napkin for Iris and gently mopped some of the blue drink for her chin where it had run over.

“I think I burned all my taste buds away.” Iris whined with an adorable pout shoving the fries closer to Caitlin. Caitlin looked her straight in the eye as she made a perfect sized pool of ketchup and carefully dipped a fry in the cool liquid and took a tentative bite with a smirk.

“Seems perfect to me. Maybe it helps to not inhale your food.” Caitlin wrinkled her nose as she made a silly face at the other woman. Her heart flipped when the other girl started laughing and leaned against her again.

“God, anyone who tells you that your cold or whatever needs to have drinks with you just once. It would set them straight forever.” Iris gave her an adoring look and Caitlin nearly jumped out her skin when she felt her fingers wrap around her knee in reassuring squeeze. Before Caitlin could react the hand was gone and Iris was waving down the bartender again. Caitlin pulled a total cat butt face when the bartender appeared instantly for Iris when she had had to fight for a second drink.

“Two rum and cokes, and a couple of glasses of ice water please.” Iris leaned slightly against Caitlin yet again and this time left the entire length of her leg leaning against hers in a solid wall of contact. Caitlin wanted to protest the drink change but realized that the she was probably due to a less intense drink if she didn’t want to make a fool of herself.

“OK so one more drink and a plate of fries to split. What should we do next?” Iris said with a tentative bite of another fry this time not burning herself.

“Next?”

“Yeah, next? Wanna go see a bad movie? Or we can get some burgers or pizza and we can watch romance movies on Netflix. Oh wait, there is that winter wonderland thing down town with those food trucks that Barry has been singing dirty limericks about all week. They have live music until midnight so that could be fun.”

“You want… you want to just hang out with me? Without Barry and Cisco?” Caitlin blinked at the other woman.

“Of course, we never get to hang out alone.” Iris nibbled another fry and smiled again. “OK I seriously can’t taste anything. Are these good? I feel like they are not good.”

“They taste like a pound of pig grease and regret. I don’t even taste any salt.” Caitlin confirmed enjoying the distraction.

“Why are we here anyways?”

Caitlin gestured at the sign on the wall. The words ‘Ladies night! All women drink half off all drinks!’ were all she needed to explain her choice.

“Half price drinks don’t excuse bad food.” Iris pushed around the fries with one of their brethren before finally swallowing another one with a grimace.

“I wasn’t thinking about food when I picked it.” Caitlin had picked it because a woman who looked a lot like Iris worked there, only she hadn’t been working tonight like Caitlin had thought. She stayed because the drinks were cheap, and she was lonely.

“Well let’s finish up and go do something before we are too drunk to stand up straight in these heels.”

“I was kind of just planning on going home and watching whatever was on tv until I fell asleep.” Caitlin finally admitted. She adverted her eyes as the bartender finally place their new drinks in front of them. Caitlin downed her water hoping to fight off the buzz building in her head a moment longer.

“Oh.” Iris looked disappointed and she returned to her fries, making a small potato-based fort from their overly crispy, almost burnt, corpses. After a few minutes she pushed the fries away with a sigh and dug her hand into her pocket.

“Well then, I was going to give you this later, but if you want to be alone, I guess I’ll give it to you know and leave you alone.” Iris places a red velvet box with a silver bow on top of it in front of Caitlin.

Caitlin blinked at the box and a slowly, tentatively opened it to gaze inside. On the white statin lining laid a silver pendant with a girl in a classic ballet pose leaning towards a light surrounded by snowflakes like she was dancing in a snow globe or a winter wonderland. With a surprisingly shaky hand Caitlin reached in to pull out the necklace and examine the figure. When her fingers rubbed against the back she felt the slight ridges of an engraving.

Caitlin flipped it around and felt her heart skip a beat as her eyes began to water at the words.

                “To the beauty of CC, who stands strong for us all”

Caitlin felt the contact that she had been unknowingly leaning into since it had been gifted to her and she jerked her head over to the woman now gathering her jacket and dropping a couple of bills on the bar. Caitlin realized that she was leaving, and she acted desperately without time to think.

Caitlin grabbed Iris’s face between her hands and planted a kiss on her mouth. Caitlin enjoyed the feeling of the woman’s lips beneath hers for all of 2 seconds before horror over her actions over took her. She didn’t know what the necklace meant and now she was claiming a kiss without her ok. She started to pull away to apologize and maybe run away.

Far away. Maybe India. How hard was it buy a plane ticket out of the country at 9 o’clock? Was her passport up to date?

Before she pulled away Iris’s hands were in her hair and she felt the other woman’s mouth open slightly beneath hers in an effort to deepen the kiss. Caitlin gasped and took the opening, loosing herself in the sensation of finally having something she had wanted so long.

After a few minutes passed she finally pulled away to catch her breath and looked the most beautiful woman in the room in the eyes. She found herself smiling, really smiling, for the first time in months when she saw the adoration in her eyes and the pride in her smile. Caitlin was ready to lose herself in that look if she was allowed.

“Just so I’m clear, this means you like me too, right?” Iris finally broke the comfortable silence they were sitting in.

“So, kissing you isn’t a clear enough sign? I really need to work at this romance stuff, Ronnie was so much better.” Caitlin said trying to keep herself calm and not scream her undying lover to the whole bar.

“Well, you have been turning down my advances since I got here.” Iris replied moving in to comfortably embrace her not caring that they were in the middle of a crowded bar and that a few of the other patrons had started to give them curious looks.

“Would it help if I told you I apparently didn’t realize Ronnie was flirting with me for 6 months before our first date, or that we went on 5 such dates before I realized we were in fact dating?” Caitlin blushed and slip a hand up to comb through the other woman’s hair.

“So much makes sense now. I got it now. Can’t be a subtle.” Iris leaned in and kissed Caitlin again briefly only to pull away with a wild smile.

“Caitlin Snow, I, Iris West, like you. A lot. Would you like to go on a date with me?” Iris asked in a serious tone that we undercut by the amused look on her face.

“Iris West, I really want to go on a date with you.” Caitlin blushed and turned away quickly feeling a burp bubble up to interrupt her perfect moment. “I will warn you I may be a little bit almost drunk, certainly a bit buzzed right now. We might want to actually make plans sober.”

Iris laughed and leaned her forehead against hers and Caitlin wanted nothing more not never not feel like this ever again. Wanted. Loved. Safe.

“How about we finish our awful fries and our drinks, pay and I take you home, so you can sleep it off?”

“Mmmm yes please.” Caitlin smiled and claimed another kiss from Iris. “But only if you promise me breakfast or lunch tomorrow.”

“Lunch sounds great.”

“Babe? You OK?” Iris’ voice jerked Caitlin from her memories as she looked up from the vanity to see her wife standing in the doorway with a little smile. Caitlin glanced down at the pendant she had been holding in her hand when she got distracted by her memories.

“This thinking and remembering. I’m almost ready, is everyone here yet?” Caitlin asked as she slipped the necklace around her neck and worked to get it latched. She smiled when after a second the warm and familiar hands of Iris West-Snow replaced hers to close the latch.

“I haven’t seen this in a while.” She murmured as she leaned in to look into Caitlin’s eyes in the mirror.

“Felt appropriate for the day.” Caitlin responded a hand reaching up to stroke the side of her face relishing in the image reflecting back at them. They looked so happy and perfect together.

“Yeah it does.” Iris kissed Caitlin’s temple and pulled away to go back down to the party waiting for them. “Don’t take much longer, everyone is here, and I don’t know if Dad can keep the kids occupied much longer.”

“Iris.” Caitlin called out to stop her before she left. When she saw Iris turn back to her, she turned back to flash a full smile at her. “I love you. Happy tenth anniversary honey.”

“I love you too. Now get a move on, you know how hard it is to keep speedsters away from ice cream cake.” Iris winked like they were sharing a special joke between the two of them and blew her a kiss before leaving the room.

Caitlin laughed and placed a hand on her hand over the growing swell of her belly where her 4th child rested. She shot herself one last glance in the mirror and touched the necklace that started it all. She left knowing she had many more days like this waiting for her.


End file.
